Art Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2745

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Alonso Berruguete: A Re-examination of the Polychrome Lunettes Adorning the Archbishop's Choir Stall in the Cathedral of Toledo
(1976) Silberman, Karen Leslie; Lynch, James B.; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
The principle concerns of this study of the three Spanish lunettes are establishing Alonso Berruguete as their sole carver, the lunettes' iconography, and an exploration of their stylistic sources. That the lunettes are not workshop pieces is derived by studying Berruguete's documented works. When the lunettes are compared with them it can be seen that they share the unique carving techniques and peculiarities of one and the same artist. The study made here of the iconography of the lunettes examines their very individual interpretation of the themes of the Flood, the Brazen Serpent and the Last Judgement, by comparing them to scenes of the same subjects. The reasons for a new interpretation of the iconographic scheme the three works present are established. For reasons of style , influence from antique art are explored . The work of the Renaissance and other Mannerist artists which in terms of style, closely corresponds to Berruguete's lunettes are comparatively examined. The results of the research make for a re-evaluation of the lunettes and help to illuminate the figure of Alonso Berruguete.
An Apology of Painting
(2006-05-15) Ratcliff, Jeremy R; Klank, Richard; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Recent works have presented personal observations of the world's inner-functionality, as connections between my experiences which existentially have little relationship or concern for one another. By breaking down the world into smaller, manageable pieces, the world becomes empirical and credence is given to every basic form. These formulaic, analytical observations have built up a language that mimics structure and pattern. While these works visually have a plethora of poststructuralist appropriations from geometric abstraction, lozenge camouflage, other works by artists, crystalline form, and cartography, it is impossible to dismiss any one reference conceptually. What results from the entanglement between conceptual and visual is a calculated disorder, a seemingly recognizable structure with an inherent chaos disrupting the comprehension.
Art and Everyday
(2008-08-21) Conaway, Sarada DeviDasi; Gavin, Dawn; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Responding to the 1983 essay The Real Experiment, written by the recently deceased artist Allan Kaprow, I discuss the "lifelike art" tradition and the lifelike art I have created while in graduate school. This thesis also compares and contrasts two western avant-garde art traditions. Various technological and cultural changes are proposed as reasons for lifelike art's recent popularity. I conclude that lifelike art is becoming vernacular, while retaining quality.
The Artwork of Eric Garner
(2004-05-07) Garner, Eric Philip; Ruppert, John; Art
The artwork consists of the assembly of pre-painted wood components, involving the search for a unified, transcending whole from within a set of discrete elements. The following thesis text presents an assortment of ideas about the making of the artwork, with a similar goal of creating a cohesive package of many subsets.
Attend
(2019) Isenberg, Monroe Joseph; Keener, Cy; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Is there a space between the animate and inanimate? Where is consciousness held? Exploration of these questions guides my practice and research. Art-making drives my effort to explore the intangible, mysterious place where matter and consciousness collide. My thesis work is an attempt to translate the inexplicable mystery encountered in this unseen space between— the moments that Martin Buber describes as the “I and Thou”— into elemental forms and installations. By investigating the invisible, I endeavor to make the unnoticed—visible and excavate the overwhelming connectedness that is present in this world. This Thesis is a reflection of the philosophy I have learned and artwork I have created to contemplate our connected reality.
Book Ends
(2024) Hilker, Kenneth; Keener, Cy; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This thesis marks a pivotal transition in my artistic journey, detailing the creation of Book Ends, a large wood sculpture that emerged as a culmination of my experiences and reflections during the MFA program at the University of Maryland. Moving away from my previous focus on painting, this work embraces sculpture to explore themes of memory, loss, and rebirth. Book Ends is crafted from repurposed wood, each piece with its own history and emotional weight, collected from dismantled homes and reshaped into a new form. This sculpture not only represents a physical assembly of materials but also embodies my personal and artistic transformations, reflecting on the interconnectedness of life's continuous cycles and the impermanent nature of existence. Through Book Ends, I aim to connect viewers with the deeper narratives embedded in the materials I use, inviting them to contemplate the layers of history and transformation inherent in the wood.
Collector of Nothing Good
(2011) Jackson, Zachary Christian; Sham, Foon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My work stems from a fascination with our reactions, both mentally and physically, to ideas of stress and anxiety. Referencing interviews and conversations gathered from others as well as my own experiences with stress my work creates a dialogue for these often-unrecognized occurrences. Each of my pieces is a conglomeration of several different ideas of stress. Often during conversations and interviews it becomes apparent that bases of tension cross paths between multiple individuals. This paper will discuss the work presented in my thesis exhibition as well as the ways that the work is initially created through the interview process.
A Comparison of the Effects of Three Instructional Activities on Elementary Students' Retention of Information
(1992) Glaser, Irene C.; McWhinnie, Harold; Art Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of three supplementary instructional activities on young students' retention of information. The study was based on Dewian and Piagetian theory regarding the central role active involvement plays in cognitive development. The three supplementary instructional activities were a verbal review, an art-related activity, and a coloring sheet activity. Subjects were the second grade population (178 students in seven intact classes) of two schools representative of the urban/suburban school district in terms of test scores, racial mix, and student mobility rates. There was a control group and two experimental groups in each school, with an additional control group without pretest, to study pretest effect. A lesson about the American flag and one about deciduous trees was designed to utilize active questioning. After participating in each lesson, students in the first treatment group completed a coloring sheet; the second group, an art-related activity; and the control group, a verbal review. The treatments were designed to supplement regular classroom instruction, not as creative art activities. The study explored possible relationships between students' art-related activities and knowing, a reversal of traditional art education studies of the effect of knowing on students' art work. Multiple-choice and drawing tests were administered as pre and posttests. The ANCOVA procedure was used for data analysis to eliminate the effect of preexisting differences between groups. Flag lesson data analysis revealed no significant differences in information retention according to method, except on the drawing tests. The control groups outperformed the coloring sheet group to a significant extent indicating a negative effect of the rote coloring sheet activity on retention of information. Data analysis from the tree lesson revealed no significant differences between treatment groups. Students' tree schema appears to have played an unexpected but important role. Suggestions are made that will enable future researchers to avoid the problem this researcher encountered, in that the art-related activity group did not have time to complete their drawing activity. On three tests, females outperformed males to a statistically significant degree.
The Crown: Paradise Reclaimed
(2018) Basch, Rebecca; Keener, Cy; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The story of my life and the story of my art are intrinsically connected. Through a personally authored story, that I identified as possessing the universal framework of the monomyth (as identified by Joseph Campbell), I became interested in the universal tendencies of humankind. My work synthesizes disparate topics into a new narrative space where parallels are drawn between the personal, extrapersonal, and the universal. In the project The Crown: Paradise Reclaimed, the quest for the ultimate boon, is examined through the stories of myself and others and centers around three locations: Baltimore, Utah, and Iceland.
Decorative Specter
(2021) McWilliams, Noah Leonard; Keener, Cy; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This exhibition reflects a tragic and anticlimactic future. The ultimate outcome of human exploration of the universe will no doubt shed light on the dismal nature of our interpersonal relationships and grand aspirations.Decorative Specter is an exhibition of sculpture and video that depicts a distant future inhabited by decorative artifacts of long extinct human civilizations. The works in this exhibition are speculative portraits of alien, but eerily familiar puppets. They represent moments within an implied overarching narrative, frozen for study and contemplation. My use of commonly overlooked aesthetics is intended to remind us that other intelligent life will likely spring from an unexpected place and with unexpected results. In the following text I will explain the formal qualities and concepts behind the work.
Dedicated switch-hitting, risking safety, embodied transcendence and other apparent contradictions.
(2008-05-14) Mitchell, Meghan; Morse, Brandon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My work reflects a long-standing attraction to the material and experiential imperfections that emerge through a collision of physical and cultural reality. My use of biological materials such as feathers in tandem with rigid systems exaggerates this contrast. It suggests the divide between a linguistic, conceptual space and an inherently organic and unpredictable physical space. While experiencing the work, the viewer is enveloped in a responsive environment of sound and that reveals the constantly shifting nature of their personal, physical experience of the environment. While embarking on what seems at first glance a practice that fits in with modernist ideals of truth and the progress of human knowledge, I do not seek to reinforce these ideals. Rather, I use humor to subvert modernist hierarchies of aesthetic value. The work borrows from a diverse range of sources such as Greek mythology, contemporary advertising, camp, cinema, art history, and representations of technological progress.
Divination Method
(2012) Glidden, Felicia Rose; Gavin, Dawn; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This thesis involves turning over internal images and narration of the mind. The work expands the gap between the seen and unseen and engages intuition through an immersion of the senses. This nonlinear approach with no beginning and no end parallels the experience of memory and creates sensorial connectivity.
Do You Know Where You Are?
(2019) Dunklin, Clayton; Strom, Justin; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Do You Know Where You Are? is an exhibition comprised of video installations, sculptural objects, and images. The following is an explanation of the theory and inspiration behind the work as well as descriptions of the pieces and text scripts from the videos. The exhibition itself is set up as a space of color, movement, and sound, that elicits a feeling of disorientation. The viewer navigates a cerebral interior that repositions my personal experience with medical imaging and contemporary image theory as a fragmented science fiction narrative.
Drawing Tools
(2006-05-15) Donarski, Vincent; Ruppert, John; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
I am from a small town in Northern Minnesota where my father runs an aggregate production business. I grew up surrounded by the heavy equipment used to move and crush gravel. My earliest memories are of seeing this machinery and being fascinated by its size, power, and sound. My work borrows the imagery and scale of these machines to make abstract forms and tools. Through making these objects I arrive at some kind of nonsensical use for them. I will create a scene, or job site where the object is used to mark another material. The tool will be used until some kind of limit is met. I will either operate the tool until I physically can't do it, or the tool becomes stuck or broken.
Edwin Forbes
(1966) Ahrens, Jacob Edward Kent; Grubar, Francis S.; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Edwin Forbes (1839-1895) became a Special Artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1862, and traveled with the Union Armies during the Civil War to record the battles and camp-scenes . Approximately 150 of his battlefield sketches were reproduced in the pages of Leslie's. After the war, Forbes settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he established himself as an etcher and painter. A vast majority of his work relied on the sketches he had made during the Civil War. In 1876 he exhibited his Life Studies of the Great Army, a collection of forty etchings, at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The etchings were well received, and brought him national and international recognition as an etcher. Life Studies remains his major achievement. Forbes published Thirty Years After, An Artist's Story of the Great War in 1891. This second collection consists of several hundred etchings based on the battlefield sketches. Forbes wrote a chatty text to accompany the etchings. During the 1880's, Forbes illustrated several children's books such as Josephine Pollard's Our Naval Heroes in Words of Easy Syllables (New York, 1886). The etchings in these books are of a generally poor quality. Twelve oil paintings dealing with the Gettysburg Campaign are among his better work. They are small canvases which reveal his skill as a painter. Forbes also wrote a short account of "The Gettysburg Campaign," which remains unpublished. Besides war themes based on the field sketches, Forbes was interested mostly in animal studies. Some of his paintings from the seventies resemble Tait's work during the same period . Several charming pencil studies of ducks, hens, and other barnyard animals have been discovered in Philadelphia and Washington. Forbes' favorite animal, however, was the horse. Unfortunately, most of these studies have disappeared. One of Forbes' last achievements was the invention of a starting-gate for horse races in 1891.
Embrace the Wave
(2023) Shahramipoor, Hosna; Strom, Justin; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Everything in the universe is made up of waves. "Embrace the Wave" is a journey of self-discovery, in which our own inner waves can resonate with and influence the world around us, dissipate, magnify, and transform.
Entropic Construction
(2020) Thron, Michael Richard; Shasn, Foon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
ENTROPIC CONSTRUCTION Michael Richard Thron Master of Fine Arts 2020 Professor of Sculpture, Foon Sham, Department of Fine Art ABSTRACT “Entropic Construction,” is an exhibition of an installation at The University of Maryland College Park. In this written component to my Thesis, I address the combination of the theory of my creative practice, material research, object ontology, personal history, and inspirations for the exhibited work.
EVERY PLACE WE’VE BEEN
(2023) Qiu, Elaine; Craig, Patrick; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Combining printmaking and painting, hovering between abstraction and representation, "Every Place We’ve Been" documents the disorienting experiences of the last years on both a collective and personal level. Using images culled from various archival sources, as well as personal snapshots, the installation examines how history becomes a collective embodied memory and draws attention to the boundaries between the personal and the public.
the evolution of a thesis
(2006-05-04) Amos, Steve Michael; Craig, Patrick; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The process of evolution inspires me. A chain of information needs to be created before any evolutionary process can occur. This information must be passed on and transmitted in order to create something new. During this transference, the information becomes mutated as certain traits are lost and picked up along the way. In my work tension is created by the push and pull between drawing and painting. I want my work to possess the refined qualities of a painting, yet retain the immediacy and vitality of a drawing. At the heart of this struggle is a quest for balance.
Fear and Doubt
(2009) Wead, Matthew; Pinder, Jefferson; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My work is about the shared human experience. The intent of the work is to address broader issues by using a mixture of the observational with the personal. The underlying concept of the work is that individual identity is not seperate from the larger human collective. Finding a commonality between our individual experiences is the only way to truly understand each other.